voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello and welcome to this cultural life, the radio 4 podcast in which we hear about the formative influences of leading creative figures. i'm john wilson and my guest is grammy—winning musician evelyn glennie, the world's leading solo percussionist. she became profoundly deaf as a child and was drawn

to percussion because, as she says, she could feel the sound. we met in a radio studio in bbc broadcasting house. evelyn, welcome to this cultural life. thank you. you grew up in rural aberdeenshire. afarming family. was it also a musical household? my father could... he couldn't actually read music but he had a very good ear and he really liked traditional scottish music, and, for some reason, in those days, even farms had a piano. most households had a piano, an upright piano, and...and we were no exception, and so he would just sit down and play scottish traditional music. and of course, he left school at the age of 1a, and immediately started working on farms and he was the youngest of 13, so, you know, you can imagine the sort of scenario, and so he was always working. my mother, on the other hand, she could read music,

but she didn't have a very good ear, so, in a way, it was the opposite. and i remember when she told the story whereby she was asked to play in the village, or if she would help out for the village church and play the organ there, because she was really, kind of, the only one who could maybe play a few hymns. and she said, "oh, no, i really don't want to be doing this — "i'm far too busy", and so on. and... but they pleaded with her and she said, "well, i'lljust do one sunday", and 36 years later she was still there. i went to a primary school that had 36 pupils in the entire school and two teachers, so it was a tiny, tiny country school, but every friday a music teacher would come in and we would be given a general music lesson. so by the time we left primary school at the age of 11, 12, the whole school, albeit 36 pupils, could read music. wow. you know, it's incredible. and farms are percussive places as well, aren't they? in terms of the rhythm of machinery, but also hoppers and tanks and silos — that resonance. was that something

that struck you? the farm was, in a way, one big orchestra, when you think about it. you know, as you say, it's the rhythm of the machinery, but it's also the texture and the dynamics as well. you know, when you...when you experience a very sick lamb leap in excitement if you approach it with a bottle of milk or something, you know, you just kind of see the fragility of that because if it's not fed, if it's not milked, it basically dies... mm. ..you know, so... and then you have the strength of a combine harvester and you've got the rhythm of nature, you know. i remember having to climb up the...the silo and it was about 30 feet high. honestly, when you were at the top, the scenery was breathtaking. i mean, you could literally have this 380 degree view. we were right... the farm was right on top of the hill and it was absolutely incredible. and the wind, you know,

ijust remember the wind, and itjust... it was so invigorating. it was incredible. and the resonance of that silo as well, the fact that it's a massive chamber... absolutely. i mean, when it was empty, you could just use your fist and, you know, thump at the silo and itjust became this massive resonator, in a way. but of course, when it was full of grain, you know, it was just a thud. different tone. it was completely different. there was absolutely nothing there at all. it was as dead as anything. what was the first awareness that you had that there was something wrong with your ears? oh, it was really the pain. it was absolutely the pain in my ears. especially when it was windy, was just really... it was... it was quite bad. just this throbbing pain in both ears. and... but then, gradually, i was beginning to notice that as i was playing the piano, that things were not clearfor me. you know, pitches were not clear.

erm, i was finding that a lot of things were sounding very distorted or almost like a crackle. and the phone, for example, you know, that i recognised, the old—fashioned phones, you know, isa ring—ring, ring—ring, ring—ring. that type of thing was becoming much more distorted, so i could still hear the phone... mm. ..but it was just not the ring that i remember. and a lot of the sounds, really, that i was experiencing were morphing into something else. with a phone or with a television or with someone speaking, i was actually looking at the person or looking at the object. the eye was becoming part of the listening experience, you know. it was kind of connecting with the ear and the two were coming together. do you remember what sound was like before you stopped hearing? i remember some sounds, you know. i remember the sound of a phone ringing. that, sort of, very joyful kind of sound. i remember, erm, a lot

of the machinery sounds, actually. i remember a lot of the livestock sounds. i remember those very, very clearly. erm, but, you know, it's not something that i try to hang on to because for me as a musician, you know, when i play a piece of music, even if i've played it many, many times, i always try to see it, you know, starting from a blank page, a blank slate, as it were, and then i'm painting sound. every single environment that i'm in, i just see it as a new experience, so, you know, i might look at a light or the shape of a camera or a microphone stand or something, and, you know, i immediately think of texture, i think of line, i think of a phrase. i just see it as something that i feel i can play. the first thing that you want to talk about, something that had a huge role in your cultural life, is the snare drum. it wasn't until the age of 12, when i moved to a secondary

school, that i was introduced to percussion, and that was a revelation for me because there we were in the assembly hall looking at this orchestra full of young people and i looked around the strings and the brass and the winds and then the percussion, and that took my fancy because each player was playing a different instrument. so you had a timpanist, you had a snare drummer, someone playing cymbals, someone playing a bass drum or whatever. and my teacher, who was a wonderful, peripatetic percussion teacher, he said, "right, evelyn, here's a snare drum. "i will see you next week." and there i was, 12 years old, with this drum. i had absolutely no idea what to do with it. there was no stand and no sticks with it. so, you know, iwas a bit, sort of, disappointed, i have to say, and confused. and i marched home with this thing and my parents said, "well, what have you got?" and i said, "well, it's a snare drum."

i knew the name of it. he had told me the name of it. and i said, "i've got no idea what i'm meant to do with this." and so ijust sort of looked at it, i put it on a table, i put it on my bed, on a cushion. but once i had that feeling of, well, you know, at least strike the thing, you know, just do something with it, i basically, you know, thumped it and i used my knuckles on it and i scraped it and i tickled it and i sort of wiped my hand over it and then i swiped it quickly and then i turned it upside down, iturned it on its side and so on. this was not the drum, actually... i was going to say, not this actual drum? not this actual drum. what i did discover was that when you placed a drum on different surfaces, it actually resonated differently. sometimes it was more choked, sometimes more open, more resonant. can you show us? yeah, absolutely. so, here, you know, if ijust hold it up in the air and i thump this drum... resonant crack. now it's stopped. and because i'm holding it by the rim, i'm actually feeling

this through the hand, so my perception of this instrument is very much a tactile one. you've almost got to be present with the acoustic of the room that you're in. so, up in the air... resonant crack. and then if i pop it on top of this piece of music... short thud. it deadens it. it's a completely different instrument there. and so when, in my second lesson, the following week, my teacher... he knew i was a farmer's daughter. and he said, "evelyn, please create the feel of a tractor." and i thought, "ah, 0k." so, suddenly, you know, iwas imagining all these different tractors. and what's interesting is that he didn't say, "evelyn, please create the sound of a tractor", otherwise you mightjust, "brrrrrr", or whatever — an immediate thing comes into your mind. but the feel of a tractor suddenly opens up this whole orchestra of tractors, and it makes you just sort of pause a minute because

visually you're imagining a tractor, or tractors, or whatever it might be, and then you're trying to feel the tractor. are you inside the tractor? are you outside of the tractor? is it a stationary tractor? in which case the feel of a tractor is... that. it's not moving. the engine isn't on. so, suddenly, it was my decision as regards to the feel of a tractor, and what my teacher was very cleverly doing was that he was trying to extract the story, the musical story from me, rather than popping himself into me. so he could have said, "right, evelyn, here's a snare drum. "please hold the sticks like this, please stand like this, "please strike the drum in this position, that position, "make sure your arms are at a more or less 90 degree angle", and so on and so forth. so i would have been trying to remember all those things and i probably would

have struck the drum and then asked permission from him, "is that right or wrong? "is that good or bad?" so he saw all of his pupils as sound creators first and foremost, then musicians to build that story, and then we need something to build the story with, so the tool, in that case, happened to be a snare drum. when did this particular drum arrive? well, once i had started percussion, that christmas, i asked my parents if i could possibly have a snare drum. and, erm, i remember there was only one music store in aberdeen, and we lived about 25 miles north of aberdeen, and so my parents asked me to just sort of stand by the door of the music store while they sort of went looking for hopefully a drum. and i noticed that there was a snare drum high up on a shelf, and i wasn't very impressed with the snare drum, to be honest. it didn't look very, sort of, nice. in my mind, i had imagined a nice, shiny, you know, brass—like shell and shiny silver lugs and rims and that kind of thing, and so this was sort of a fairly, kind of, feeble,

dead—looking snare drum. and so the shopkeeper brought the snare drum down and inwardly i was saying, "no, no, no, please, no. "please don't buy that snare drum. n°_" anyway, they did, because it was the only snare drum in the shop, and so, of course, once christmas arrived, i sort of pretended to be happy, i have to say, and i was very disappointed because, you know, as you can see, it's a brown shell snare drum. there's nothing too shiny about it. yes, the rims are fine, but this is very much an educational instrument that you might find in a primary school. mm. however, i obviously pretended to be happy for my parents' sake, and it had a very thin, spindly stand and i popped it on the stand, but, i have to say, that this drum became an extension of my limbs. i started playing this drum, and every day i would play it, and i then suddenly realised, my god, this drum is absolutely amazing.

you know, itjust became so much part of me. and, you know, ifelt really guilty feeling how i did, you know, when i took it out of the parcel, but, you know, itjust became such an extension of my whole being, my whole journey at school. and, you know, i've kept this drum, i've kept the stand, and even the first pair of drumsticks, as well. when did you think, i am good? i could do something with this skill. well, i've neverfound myself being good, per se. i've always been... i think possibly what i've been good at is realising that you can be better at something, and i've always felt that... just keep... just keep pushing yourself to be better. and, bit by bit, i was beginning to see other players so i could sort of see where i was, but even though i was so insular within myself because i just love to...

..i suppose, play by myself. i enjoyed the orchestras and bands, but my heart very much felt comfortable when i was by myself, so that was a natural thing that felt right for me. and, erm... and so i think that with that type of discovery, i realised that i'd only be happy doing music if i could be a soloist. so the decision for me, at the age of 15, to give music a go on the proviso that i would be a soloist. it was a very simple aim. you auditioned for the royal academy, i think, at around this time. how hard was it to get in, first of all? well, i auditioned for the royal academy and the royal college, both in london, simply because ijust wasn't expecting to get in, so i didn't audition for any other places, and i did my best, and that was all, really, that i could do. and then, of course,

there was the theory part of it as well and the written papers and i basically, you know, sort of did my best there. however, the academy felt that they could not accept me based on my hearing, and i thought, well, hold on a second, what about the audition? was i simply not good enough to get in? so i needed more meat on the bones as regards to the reason. because, for me, to say that the reason was because of my deafness was simply not at all something i could accept. and the main reason was because theyjust could not see how orchestras would accept a deaf musician. and... well, of course, you know, in the audition, i wasn't even asked what my, you know, aims were going to be and things like that — that was not part of the audition, and so i said, "look, i want to be a solo percussionist." and this was like a double

whammy in a way, because, of course, solo percussion did not exist on a full—time basis before and with so little repertoire for solo percussion, so theyjust could not see how a career could be made by being a solo percussionist. for me, this had already been formed in my mind, so it was already happening, you know, so i'd sort of passed that stage, as it were. and so i just felt that, no, i needed to say, "was the audition good enough? yes or no? "if it was good enough, yes, then really, you know, "any person should be able to get in based on that audition." you did get into the royal academy of music, you enrolled in 1982, and the next choice that you've brought for the programme is a percussionist — a teacher of yours. tell me aboutjames blades.

erm, ifirst metjames when i was 1a years old, when he gave one of his lecture demonstrations, and i was just enthralled, completely enthralled. and i remember he was playing a snare drum piece and, actually, it was one part of a duet. and so he said, "0h...", you know, "..would anyone like to play the other part?" my teacher kind of thrust me forward and said, "right, evelyn, you do this." and, erm... which i did. and i rememberjames saying afterwards to me, he said, "well, you know, are you thinking about a career in music?" and i thought, "oh, crumbs, no, "i haven't even thought about it", you know. that was the first tiny, tiny seed that was planted, really. he was such a visionary, first of all. anything was possible. and he was such a great listener. he listened to your story and he believed that i could be a solo percussionist. so, you know, he didn't say, "well, that's never been done before", and, "well, who's going to listen to a two—hour percussion recital?", or something like that. he was, "absolutely. "right, let's explore this,

that and the next thing." and it was fascinating how he found every piece of music to be like a world premiere. you know, he had worked with the great composers such as stravinsky on the soldier's tale. he had worked with benjamin britten on many of the percussion sounds from his operas, you know. he had worked on so many things. he was an academic, he was a practical player and he was a great storyteller and communicator. and this had a massive influence on me. he really, really did. and there's hardly a day that goes by whereby i don't think about him one way or another. when he started teaching you at the royal academy, did he remember that moment when you were 1a, when you'd accompanied him in aberdeen? well, i... absolutely he did. and his memory was unbelievable. he could remember stories from... you know, non—musicalstories, instances that, you know... things people had said. he could make the next—door neighbour sound so incredible and fascinating that you just felt, i really want to meet this person. you know, everybody mattered and everything mattered

and every sound mattered. talking of sounds, i read that he was the man who played the gong at the beginning of the rank films, when you see the big oiled strongman banging that gong. the real sound is played byjames blades. exactly right. exactly. and i think that particular gong is now at a museum in edinburgh and the gong, actually, is quite small. you'll be surprised how small it is. it's only something like a 20 inch or something like that, as opposed to the massive papier—mache thing that you see... papier—mache. it wasn't a real gong. it's incredible. the next big moment you have chosen happened in 1992, when you performed the premiere of a new concerto by james macmillan called veni, veni, emmanuel at the bbc proms, and this was the first—ever percussion concerto in the history of the proms. music plays

i was absolutely headstrong in broadening the repertoire, asking composers to write for solo percussion because i needed enough repertoire to sustain a career, so it was absolutely crucial to have pieces written for me. and i happened to be doing a lot with the scottish chamber orchestra. and they happened to be working a lot with james macmillan, the wonderful scottish composer, so we thought, "why don't we askjames "to write a percussion concerto?" and i remember saying to the scottish chamber orchestra that, honestly, if there is one composer who could write a concerto, it has to be james. and, of course, both our

thinking came together and he wrote a piece called veni, veni, emmanuel. and, yes, this was the first—ever percussion concerto in the history of the proms, and it gave orchestras faith to put percussion concertos on. it's a powerful piece, physically and mentally. this is a great piece of music, you know, thatjust happens to be a percussion concerto. how many instruments were you playing on stage that night? oh, my goodness. erm... i think i was probably too busy to count. heavens... i think there must be around, maybe... i don't know, 15, 20 different instruments or something. and you're rushing backwards and forwards across the stage. it's a physically demanding piece to play, isn't it? it is. yes, absolutely. you know, a lot of times i set my instruments up on the cello, double bass side, in order to feel more vibrations, and so that's my preferable side, as it were. however, with this piece, you know, i used marimbas and vibraphones and a drum set up and blocks and cymbals and gongs and you name it, so i really had to use both sides of the conductor. but then there is this physical energy that you want

to portray as well, and so this kind of feeling of intention was really important, too. so sometimes i may position instruments slightly further than they need to be in order to make something have that dramatic feel, or sometimes i may bring things closer together. you're positioning your instruments where they work best, where you can feel the sound of the orchestra. are you also aware of what the conductor is doing in terms of tempo and rhythm? 0h, definitely. i mean, when you're learning a piece of music, you learn from the full score, so there aren't any surprises because you've learned the music from the full score, but also how i position myself on stage. it's more or less to a 90 degree angle to the orchestra and the audience, so i can see about three—quarters of the orchestra and the conductor is always right at the edge of the stage so that he or she can see me and i can see them. equally, it's important for the orchestra to see me because the gestures of a percussion player are so important.

so, if i go like this, or like this, or like that, you know, they've got to be able to interpret that. you also play barefoot every time with an orchestra, don't you? certainly, most of the time i do. it depends on the type of stage. but, yes. more or less, yes. partly because you feel absolutely grounded. you need to be so well—balanced. everything is being distributed and it's exactly the same way as when you digest sound. you're overloaded if you're feeding everything through the ear for a length of time. but when you distribute that sound throughout the whole body, then actually you can cope with a lot more. since then, you've gone on to commission i think something like 200 new pieces of music that put the percussion centre stage. how proud an achievement is that for you? well, i'm...|�*m very proud of the fact that composers have been open to solo percussion

and they still are. you know, the way that composers have really pushed the boundaries of percussion playing physically, emotionally, the weight of the pieces they have written, i feel extremely proud about that. do you think that over the course of your career, given the fact that you are profoundly deaf, you have had to push harder, you've had to work harder? you know, funnily enough, i've never actually felt that because i've always wanted to work, and that's been the one constant — that i've just never had a problem finding something to do or seeing what needs to be done and getting it done. i'm not necessarily going to be the best at solving a problem by any means, but i will at least, you know, participate in that. and i think that's been really important because this is the kind of profession, like so many, whereby you can't take anything for granted.

i don't know how long the body will stand, you know, being a physical musician, but i will always be a musician. and just finally, you say that when you first started to lose your hearing, you learned to feel the music rather than just listen to it. should we all be feeling the music more? well, in a way, i wouldn't really think about music as a separate entity. i think, should we all be listening more? yes is the answer. when i come to an instrument, the first thing i listen to is myself. i listen to myself, i listen to my body, i listen to how i'm feeling, i listen to myself before i even pick a stick up. maybe we need to think, well, have i spent a little moment today just listening to myself, just listening to my own chatter? you know, just... not analysing, not thinking it's to do with, you know, a religion or zen or anything like that, it'sjust a simple, simple thing like listening to yourself and giving yourself that moment and that opportunity. evelyn glennie, thank you very much indeed.

you're welcome. thank you. hi there. for many, this weekend is going to be hot and humid again, especially for england and wales, with temperatures only slowly coming down across scotland and northern ireland. and as the cooler air starts to invade in there, we're likely to see increasing chance of thundery downpours, some of which could be quite heavy in places. certainly england and wales on sunday. now we've had some cloud drifting up from the south as we move into the early part of saturday, some mist and low cloud around some coasts of south—west england and wales.

and it's here where we could see some showers or some thunderstorms, same too, across the north and the west of scotland. but elsewhere, it's a dry and a clear night. and again, another very warm and muggy one to start saturday morning with temperatures no lower than around 18 or 19 in one or two spots. so it's a very warm start to saturday, pretty much from the word go. we'll have sunshine around, but well, this weather front will be pushing into the north—west of scotland, bringing thicker cloud breeze, outbreaks of rain, a few showers elsewhere. and there will be some scattered thundery showers developing across england and wales as we see temperatures peak at around 32 or 33 degrees in the south—east. so this could be the hottest day of the heatwave. but these showers and thunderstorms, although well scattered, could be pretty intense if you catch one and there's a chance of some localised flooding as well. but most places will be dry to take us into saturday evening. we could see further clusters of showers and thunderstorms running up from the south. again, it's going to be a warm and a muggy night, especially so for england and wales with temperatures beginning to come down across the north—west.

now the great north run on sunday across north—east england looks pretty decent actually, although there will be some rain around. some of it could be thundery. these temperatures will be pretty comfortable for running in, but we could start off with some thundery rain in the morning and then into the afternoon. heavy showers could develop with a bit of sunshine in between. but sunday is another warm and humid one for england and wales, with a scattering of thunderstorms developing into the afternoon. temperatures again up to 30 degrees in the south—east, but you'll notice the low 20s for scotland and northern ireland. so things are turning cooler and the trend as we head into next week is for this cooler, fresher, less humid air to spread southwards across the country. and that'll introduce north—westerly winds and also plenty of showers, particularly in the north and the west. it'll be much cooler by day, much fresher at night, but still some good spells of sunshine across the south.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the first images are emerging of a powerful earthquake that's hit morocco. hundreds are feared dead. world leaders arrive in delhi as india prepares to kick off the g20 summit this week. georgia's fulton county releases its grand jury report in its investigation of alleged 2020 election meddling. hello i'm carl nasman. hundreds of people are feared dead and many more injured after a powerful 6.8 earthquake struck central morocco. the epicentre was 71 kilometres —